It’s Official: Dragonfly identified at the Sparrow Field

Dr. Dennis P. Paulson, the top official of The Dragonfly Society of the Americas: Odonata Central, hosts the official website of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas and in June 2011 confirmed a Chatham County addition to the Odanata check list.

Identification came from a 2009 photograph taken at The Landings Sparrow Field by Kirk Rogers. Fitz Clarke first submitted the photo to Giff Beaton, author of the Odonata bible of Georgia, “Dragonflies & Damselflies of Georgia and the Southeast.”

The Taper-tailed Darner, Comphaeschna antilope was captured by Kirk, with his tripod mounted 600mm lens, in the beak of a female Purple Martin, just prior to serving it to her chicks on the Sparrow Field gourd rack.

Fitz adds, “I wish to acknowledge the efforts of our volunteers who maintain (monitor) the Sparrow Field’s 16-gourd rack. We go through a lot of bird poop each year to provide the Purple Martins a location to raise their young — 79